Born Pink, the sophomore album from Blackpink, glitters with all the beguiling elements that made the quartet the biggest girl group in the world. Lisa, Jisoo, Jennie, and Rosé’s sweet, two-faced “black” and “pink” duality, door-busting attitude, and fierce independence are all accounted for, and their immense charm remains undiminished. But the thrilling novelty has worn off. As Blackpink has become more of a brand than a band, their musical evolution has stalled. Born Pink delivers the same tried-and-true Blackpink sound that has cemented their success. That consistency will delight some and bore others. Whichever camp you fall into, the bottom line is that Born Pink fails to unlock new dimensions of musical development and dep…
Maria Raga never expected to be able to pull off a pair of yellow Versace pants like the ones she was wearing the day we spoke in July. Although she’s now the CEO of Depop, a popular clothing-resale app, she was hardly a lifelong fashionista. “Versace’s a brand that’s accessible for very, very rich people,” she says. “But I got it secondhand on Depop. It’s a very cool color. I can tell you nobody else in my circle of friends will be wearing something similar.”
Raga, 42, is not exactly in Depop’s core demographic: 90% of Depop’s 30 million active users across 150 countries are under the age of 26. She was skeptical of buying previously owned clothes after growing up in Spain on fast-fashion labels like H&M and Zara, br…
Before he stepped down on Dec. 19, Dr. Francis Collins was the longest-serving director of the National Institutes of Health since presidents began to appoint them. Installed by President Obama in 2009, he served under three administrations and during his tenure the budget of the NIH, the leading funder of research related to the health of Americans, grew from $30 billion to $43 billion. He is that rare bureaucrat who is also a career scientist; he was instrumental in decoding the genome and will continue to work at the National Human Genome Research Institute lab at the NIH, which has already had some success in the search for genetically-informed solutions to such health issues as cystic fibrosis, type 2 diabetes and progeria. He is also that rare scientist who is a devout Christian; …
A version of this article was published in TIME’s newsletter Into the Metaverse. Subscribe for a weekly guide to the future of the Internet. You can find past issues of the newsletter here.
For years, the 3D software development tool Unreal Engine has powered some of the biggest video games on the market—from Fortnite to Valorant—as well as television shows like The Mandalorian and even Porsche engineering. On Tuesday, Epic Games showed off the public release of Unreal Engine 5, the engine’s first major update in 8 years.